Tuesday, January 17, 2012

1. Take more photos. For my birthday last year my boyfriend got me a digital camera. It wasn't one a REALLY nice one, but it was a pretty good upgrade from the one that I had. And it's good enough for the amount of pictures I take on a weekly basis... which is none. So I resolve to take more pictures this year. And to do things that are worth taking photos of.

3. Publish a book. If you want to be technical about it, I've actually published 3 books. But those were all "limited editions." I would like to write/illustrate a kids book, and then mass produce it and sell it independently.

4. Do and Die... this is just my code for "finish all of the video games that I've got on my list." Which is a lot.

5. Have a gallery show. So this is a little fact that not many people know about me: I've actually got a pretty sweet studio and gallery space. It needs a little paint and some light fixtures that aren't florescent, but I dream of getting it all fixed up and hosting a few gallery shows, one being a show of just my work.

6. Have a booth at a fair. (Like how I misspelled it in my drawing? Go me.) Every year we have a art fair type of thing at our carnival. I schemed about having a booth this year, but I didn't have any idea what kind of products I would sell. Well now I've decided, so it's time to start producing!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

I bought this journal from the artist JILL BLISS and fell instantly in love. It's the notebook that I keep with me at all times. The work that is featured within its pages is inspiring, and the design of the book itself is just as breathtaking.

Monday, January 2, 2012

The bag itself was a white elephant gift. It smelled slightly like an attic and was blindingly gold. But when I looked at it, all I could see was chevron print. (inspired by the clutch in this post by Elise from A Beautiful Mess)

The process itself took me about 4 hours. I didn't use any fancy supplies, just the things I had around the house. (Acrylic paint, a sharpie, and a notecard, to be exact.)

First I did some tests inside the fold of the bag. I made sure to test all of the supplies I was planning on using before even starting. I hate it when I get half way through a project and realize that I can't make it look like I want to just because the supplies are cooperating.

Then it was stencil making time. (Inpsired by this diy from Refinery29) It took me about 10 minutes to make one with a ruler and a notecard. It was totally worth the time though, because there's no way my lines would have looked half as nice without it. The notecard was convenient because it was flexible, and I was able to bend it around the edges of the bag. I just used the permanent marker to trace the pattern, mainly because I knew that half of the stripes would be black in the end.

First I just colored in whatever I wanted with black. It took a lot of patience (I think I watched a whole movie) and a vented window. Then I used my accrylics to paint in the white parts. I also wanted to keep some of the glitz, so I decided to leave some gold peeking out. IMPORTANT: If you want to leave some of the underneath pattern showing, be sure to find some way to mark it so you don't accidentally color it. I didn't mark it on the front... so there was no little line of gold.

After that, it was smooth sailing. Not a lot of work for a one-of-a-kind bag. :]